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Before jumping into some book club books, I wanted to read something quick that wasn't historical. After debating a few different books and sub-genres, I realized I hadn't read the third book in Victoria Aveline's Clecanian series, Saving Verakko. The first two books came out in 2020 and I read both pretty soon after their release and absolutely loved them!
On the planet that these girls are kidnapped and brought to is unique in the way that mates are chosen. I've read other alien romances where the women are dying out kind of trope, but the way that this advanced and civilized planet has dealt with that is such a unique idea. So the male partner in a couple actually goes to husbandry school. They learn how to pleasure and keep a wife happy and healthy. They learn how to do the finances, cook, clean, sexual health and even massage. Once a man has reached a point to choose a marriage, they are chosen for a selection. This is kind of a line-up then one-on-one interview for a woman to choose a husband. Now since there are such little women, they have complete rights in choosing. Marriages are also treated as a contract where they are together for at least 3 months and then the woman can decide if she'd like to try to have children with her chosen partner. This means that husbands can be chosen multiple times. It's also a big form of punishment to no longer be allowed to be chosen.
Another aspect in this world is that there are mates and markings that will show on the beings of this planet (of which there are a few different kinds). It has been a long time since a true mating has happened (the last couple being the parents of the heroes in the first two books). Another little thing to note is that it's believed that humans and the beings of this planet all descended from the same species, so that allows for the romance between everyone. I know I went a little in depth in the set up, but since it's laid out pretty well in the first book but I didn't have my blog at that point, I wanted to give a little primer on the series. Also good to note, is that human women are being captured (which goes against almost all laws of this planet) and are being genetically experimented with since they are found to be compatible. The people doing this are traitors and we seem their secret bases being hunted down and human women rescued throughout the series.
Now to what's actually going on in this book. We meet Lily whose one of the two ladies that decided to rough it in the wild than wait for whatever "aliens" were coming when their secret base was found. Surprising Lily has been kind-of forced to live wild by her parents growing up, so despite being a city girl at heart she knows how to forage and make water and start a fire and just survive. Verakko is a being that lives in a separate area than the first two heroes, but feels like an outsider since he's very techy and nerdy. He wants to live in the city with all the fun technological advancements. Verakko is actually being kidnapped by a traitor and escapes into the forest, coming across Lily when she's been separated from the other girl Alex. I really enjoyed getting back into this world. I did get a little frustrated with Lily near the end. She was so understanding, practical and logical about a lot of their choices in the forest. When they finally reached his city though it felt like she almost suddenly had to create drama because it needed to be there. I did understand her almost dying and that was needed to make Verakko's mate marks finally show (outside of just his eyes), but I didn't like that she wanted him to hid them. It just felt like extra unnecessary drama. It was already super crazy them surviving in the forest and just getting to civilization.
We do get hints about what happened to Alex after her and Lily were separated, but I'm not sure if she's the next book or not. I can't wait for Victoria Aveline to write more. I also absolutely love the covers and have to have these in paperback. From what I can tell the Choosing Theo was her debut novel and I'm super intrigued for whatever she writes next! If you're interested in sci-fi or alien romance and haven't tried this series, I highly recommend it. The first is probably my favorite, but I've loved them all so far!
Have you read Saving Verakko?
Bookishly Yours,
Stasi🍎
STATISTICS: Saving Verakko, Victoria Aveline, 4-stars, 1 day, eBook, 336 pages, published in 2021
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